Problem with normal bake (XNormal)

cookedpeanut

Ok, I'm literally at the end of my tether, this is driving me absolutely ape shite.
Tried everything and I just keep epically failing at the bake out.
Could someone please help me with this because I'm about to chuck this model into the bin...
Here's the high and low poly models together:

Low poly UV map:

...and the terrible, absolutely rubbish bake:

OBJ!
Here's the low-poly UV mapped:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7741113/LOW.obj

High-poly:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7741113/HI.rar

Mark Dygert

What is rubbish about it? The waves are normal and should be there, its the difference between the high and the low poly. Personally I would straighten out a lot of the UV's especially in the handle. I might even break off a few shells at some smoothing breaks so its easier to straighten out. I would also optimize your low poly a lot more, there seems to be a lot of wasted triangles.

cookedpeanut

Ok optimized the mesh a little more, took it down from 2005 tris to 1620 tris - that sufficient enough?


Correct me if I'm wrong, so you're saying the wavy effect on the handle notches are supposed to be there then?
I don't understand why it looks bad when it's applied to the model - I'll get an image up so you can see what I mean.
Ty

Mark Dygert

Who put the waves in my normal map.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81154

EarthQuake

If you simplify the lowpoly mesh and remove those grooves from the handle your bake will come out cleaner, they barely effect the silhouette anyway and this is the sort of detail the a normal map can handle well. This will also reduce the likelyhood of smoothing errors depending on where the model is going(which engine etc). I would remove that little indent in the back of the handle too.

But regardless, you should be viewing the normal map on the mesh, not looking at the 2d image and trying to "debug" it. All that matters is what it looks like on your actual model.

JohnnyRaptor

Also, triangulate your mesh before baking. This was if your baking in an external app, the triangle stripes will be synced between your modelling app, baker and the engine.

cookedpeanut

EarthQuake wrote: »

If you simplify the lowpoly mesh and remove those grooves from the handle your bake will come out cleaner, they barely effect the silhouette anyway and this is the sort of detail the a normal map can handle well. This will also reduce the likelyhood of smoothing errors depending on where the model is going(which engine etc). I would remove that little indent in the back of the handle too.

But regardless, you should be viewing the normal map on the mesh, not looking at the 2d image and trying to "debug" it. All that matters is what it looks like on your actual model.

Good point, I've removed everything you said - now sitting at 1076 tris :poly121:

Also did a rough pass with the sculpting tools to make the bake more interesting:


Now for the baking - Should I scale anything or should I leave the low and high poly models 1:1?

EarthQuake

There shouldn't be any reason to scale the meshes.

One thing about the sculpting: Try to keep in mind what materials you're representing. The handle for instance would be made out of a hard polycarbinate type material, so it wouldn't really get lumpy like that for any reason(unless it was burnt/melted).

Some of the scratches on the blade don't make much sense either, I think its important to find some reference for this sort of stuff, ie:


Observe the wear patterns here, the black paint is rubbing off on the blade (which is easier/more flexible to do with the texture in 2d), the handle is dirty and dusty, but there really isn't any visible gouging, because these materials are really hard and not likely to scratch or crack easily.

So try not to go wild with your sculpting, you don't NEED to sculpt everything just because you CAN.

cookedpeanut

Point taken.
I'll remove the wear on the handle.

How is this UV layout looking now?


Edit:
Green area is missing detail.
Red areas don't appear right, something has gone wrong.

Any advice?

cookedpeanut

Ayeee, finally got it working! Feeling well chuffed now, lol.
So I read through that thread and took in what you guys told me, turns out - the reason it wasn't baking properly was because I needed to explode the mesh out. So simple :poly127:

Anyways, did some more tweaking - 976 tris now. About as low as I'd want to go, it's starting to look too blocky for my liking.

Texturing time!

Thx for the help guys.